Search for Bounty captain called off

Capt. Robin Walbridge stands on the deck of HMS Bounty in this 2004 photo. The search for the 63-year-old, who went missing when the ship went down off North Carolina on Monday, was suspended on Thursday. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

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UPDATED 9:24 p.m. Thursday

The U.S. Coast Guard called off the search for the captain of HMS Bounty on Thursday night, more than three days after the tall ship was abandoned in raging seas off North Carolina during hurricane Sandy.

Coast guard officials maintained throughout that Capt. Robin Walbridge might still be alive. He was known to have been wearing a survival suit and the water temperature hovered around 25.

But after covering more than 3,000 square kilometres by air and sea, the search was suspended until someone reports seeing Walbridge, Petty Officer 1st Class Brandyn Hill said.

“The coast guard does not make the presumption of death,” he said. “But based on the facts that our search efforts have not yielded positive results ... we have suspended our efforts pending further development.”

Walbridge and Claudene Christian were the only two of the 16-member crew who didn’t make it into the Bounty’s lifeboats. Christian was pulled from the water Monday evening and pronounced dead later in hospital. The rest of the crew had been airlifted to safety that morning.